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When space is at a premium, Williams said opting to create a vignette by devoting a small area to decorative touches is an easy way to infuse your home with holiday style.

"Not all of us have room for a huge Christmas tree, for example, so you could do something on a table top on a coffee table set up like a little wintry landscape in one corner with a few well-chosen pieces, lovely pillar candles, maybe some nice, sparkly silver balls, and you're done."

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While modernism is making waves, decorative elements with a more earthy feel are also carving out a niche.

Karen Sealy, owner of Toronto-based Sealy Design Inc., said the natural theme is big this year.

A few years ago there was much more espresso-coloured wood, but there's been a shift toward natural, mid-toned woods and that's showing up now in holiday decor.

"I'm seeing a lot of decorations that are also more wood-based with the handmade, handcrafted quality," she said.

Keeping with the natural theme, consider wrapping presents in kraft paper and adding colour using bows, or having kids get involved by using stamps or ink to decorate the paper, Sealy said.

As for natural-inspired holiday decor, one possible do-it-yourself option is to snip and spray-paint branches, said Tammy Cunningham, owner and operator of Kelowna, B.C.-based Center Stage Interior Decorating.

"You can have that in a bedroom or a bathroom or somewhere tucked away where it's not going to take up much space but just add that little bit of Christmas, and that could even be your tree," she said. "A lot of people will even take a vase and put some twigs spray-painted a certain colour and actually hang little ornaments right off it."

Sealy said individuals should also feel free to be a little less formal and to pull out old items, like Grandma's china and crystal, and use them in new ways. For example, if you have ornate wine or water goblets that aren't necessarily your taste, consider putting candles in them, she suggested.

Same goes for items like martini glasses.

"You could do seven or nine or 12 and really make a statement," Sealy said. "You could take some of the metallic-like sprigs you could buy and you could weave those around the base of the glasses and it would be actually a very fun kind of modern, loft, young way to do a mantel as opposed to the old traditional boughs," she suggested.

"Then it would also be great if you were going to a New Year's party, sprinkle a little confetti over top of it – a Christmas right into New Year's Eve party."

Doilies can also be multi-purpose, nestled under candles or hung from the tree using fishing wire and little hooks, Sealy added.

"It's a nice way to bring in that natural, handcrafted theme that we're seeing in decor into the holiday."

Those with limited space or unable to have a live tree could consider making their own custom one.

Cunningham said that in one loft, they created a tree fashioned out of wrapped presents made strictly from shoeboxes stacked from largest to smallest, topped off with a bow-sporting box.

Individuals opting to do something similar could wrap their boxes in silver or red paper and put little ornaments to sit on top, a look that could also work standing alone on a mantel, she suggested.

"That way you can make it as big or small as you want and it's something different, it's a little unique."

Individuals who've collected their kids' homemade ornaments and been given things they don't want to get rid of could consider displaying them in a large hurricane vase as a table centrepiece, or on a coffee or entry table, Williams said.

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